Finding the right path
by learningtowriteagain
Summary: A story based on Bandersnatch. Will be an OC x either Stefan or Colin story (haven't decided which yet). Starting off K but will end up M. Plot suggestions very welcome. Help me write the story!
1. Chapter 1

8:30. The jarring sound of Eve's alarm clock roused her from her uneasy sleep. Groaning, she raised her head blearily to look at the time before ducking under a pillow, slamming blindly at the bedside table to shut the noise off. There was a gentle thump as the clock fell from its place, the alarm now slightly muffled from the carpet but still equally irritating. Eve groaned again, louder, before slowly easing her head out from under the pillow, pulling herself up to sitting. _I've had 3 hours of sleep, maximum_ she lamented, kicking the clock and hitting the 'off' button with her foot _. Too nervous_. She glanced at her dress hanging against the wardrobe door, feeling her stomach begin to knot. It felt like the fabric of that dress held on to every bad interview experience she'd had recently. Perhaps it was cursed. If she had the money to buy a new one, she would. _Better get up. 1 hour to get ready._ Ignoring the uneasy nausea now sweeping across her body, she swung out of bed, padding her way out of her bedroom and into the hallway towards the bathroom, grimacing as she eventually caught sight of herself in the cabinet mirror. _This won't do._

She rehearsed her pitch whilst in the shower, drying her hair, brushing her teeth and applying her makeup, finding fault with each iteration and trying not to give way to the wave of panic slowly spreading across her chest. She'd made notes on every interview question she could possibly think of, writing her ideal answers on post-it notes which were now stuck haphazardly around the mirror she was using to apply a finishing touch of mascara with. Pleased with her overall appearance and momentarily distracted, she indulged in a quick twirl, blowing her reflection a kiss.

"This time." She said to her reflection, as she placed her palms on the mirror's edge, and leaned forward to watch her eyes turn hard. This one she had in the bag. It was a step down in terms of position and a step in the wrong direction in terms of career, but at this moment in time she couldn't afford to be picky. Eve brought herself back to reality, flashing a brief smile to her duplicate. She could be charming if she had to be. _It's only an interview. How hard can becoming a receptionist be?_

She was impressed. Tuckersoft was much more of a formidable building than she had imagined. Grabbing her briefcase and stepping off the bus, she crossed the road towards the building, trying not to push her luck (and balance) too much whilst in heels by glancing up. At the entrance, she paused at the glass door, taking a moment to steady herself. _I've got this._ Taking and involuntarily holding a large breath, she shoved open the double doors with as much authority as she could muster, striding with an air of confidence that came so easily to her she almost giggled. Maybe she should have been an actor instead?

The company was a hub of noise and bustle, which surprised Eve. In the paper advert she'd applied to the description had mentioned the company was relatively new, however nothing in the atmosphere suggested anything other than intense familiarity: people were leaning against desks at complete ease, dressed casually and chatting amiably with colleagues. As she walked towards the empty reception area, she heard a muffled ripple of laughter from out of sight around the corner. She was relieved at the friendly atmosphere, but mildly concerned that in her current outfit and heels, she was overdressed. Perhaps she should hold off on buying a new dress. Conscious of her nerves starting to creep in again, she checked her watch. 10:10. She was early. _Maybe a little too early_ she worried, biting her lip. _Is 20 minutes early 'enthusiastic' or 'desperate'?_ She briefly contemplated leaving to find a coffee shop nearby, but her thoughts were interrupted by the clicking of heels, following by the source of the laughter she had heard earlier. From around the corner came a stunning blonde woman dressed entirely in red, accompanied by a large man in an impressive suit. Eve watched, fascinated, as they walked towards the reception, his hand making its way to the small of her back as she indulged him with another soft laugh.

"Well, it was fantastic to meet you, Catherine." He paused at the entrance as she turned to face him. "Likewise, Mr Thakur", she responded, beaming.

"Mohan, please." He insisted, shaking her hand- a gesture that lasted a little too long.

"I'd ask our receptionist to walk you out, but as you can see-' he gestured to the empty space around him jokingly, apparently oblivious to Eve's presence, " _but_ , hopefully that's something you'll be able to help me out with in the future.' The two shared a smile as Eve's face paled. She hadn't even interviewed and the job had already gone. And even if it hadn't, she hadn't prepared to compete with a catwalk model. Her heart pounded furiously. She needed this job, badly. It had been a rough few months and the thought of this new income had been the only thing keeping her going. She was already a month behind on rent.

'Hello?' Brought back to the world with a start, she jumped at the voice, and looked up to see Mr Tucker staring at her, bemused. His receptionist to-be had seemingly disappeared outside. "Can I help you?".

"Oh." Eve stammered, off guard. "Sorry, I-" she paused, not sure what to say in the current situation. He waited politely, smiling encouragingly. "I had an interview" she finished lamely, gripping her briefcase tightly as she felt her face flush. Before she could make her excuses to leave, his face suddenly cleared.

"Oh Jesus, my apologies, my last meeting overran. Time flies." He checked his watch. "10:12." He tutted at himself. "You must have been waiting here for a while!" He motioned for her to stand up, a wide smile on his face. "You're a bit of a surprise, I have to say." He offered, after a brief pause. "Don't catch many sound engineers looking-" he gestured at her vaguely, still smiling. Eve opened her mouth to say something, momentarily stunned. Nothing came out.

"No, no, sorry, I mean it's a pleasant surprise!" He exclaimed, mistaking her silence for concern, holding his hands up briefly in apology. She flashed him an uneasy smile, weighing up her options.

"Please, follow me." Oblivious, he headed back towards the offices and desks, adding "this will be a quick one, I promise!" after a moment's pause, calling casually over his shoulder in her direction. Eve got to her feet, still clutching her briefcase. She needed this job. _Does that leave me an option?_

"Sound engineer" she murmured to herself, pushing herself to move after him.

She repeated the title to herself quietly, planning quickly in her head as she picked up the pace towards the meeting room Mohan was setting up in. Passing the office desks to the left of her, she quickly unclasped her briefcase and in one smooth movement grabbed her CV and discarded it into one of the paper bins she passed. She had said she could be charming if she had to be- time to test the limits.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, Miss—" Mohan looked up from the stack of loose papers he had been flipping through "- Jesus, I don't think I've even asked you your name! So sorry."

"Evelyn." Eve smiled warmly, reaching across the desk to shake his hand. He grinned apologetically as his palm almost completely engulfed her hand.

"Great to meet you Evelyn. I'm Mohan."

"It's nice to be able to put a face to the name, I've heard an awful lot about you." It was harder than she'd expected to play her relaxed, charming alter ego, but she managed to keep her voice calm and level. Trying not to think about what was at stake.

"You have?" he visibly brightened "Where?"

Eve waved her hand in the air vaguely. "You must have seen Tuckersoft mentioned in the paper last week?" she questioned. Technically not a lie. She'd read the 3 line job description.

"Which paper? I bet it was an article about Colin, wasn't it?" he shook his head, "That kid is a prodigy around here."

"Yes, it was actually" she beamed, ignoring his first query and relieved by the leading nature of his questioning. Mohan grunted thoughtfully.

"We've got a programmer who started here a few weeks ago. I introduced him to Colin during the interview and he could barely take his eyes off him the whole time. Kept gushing about how he'd played all of his games. Still, just goes to show- Tuckersoft only has the best of the best!" Eve laughed politely in agreement. It wasn't Catherine's soft tinkling tone, but it would have to do.

"With that in mind," he continued, frowning as he returned to his pile of papers,

"we probably should be getting on with this. I've taken up enough of your time already."

"It's no problem at all, Mr Thakur." The panic started to rise again as the reality of the situation settled on Eve.

"Mohan" he corrected, continuing to rummage through his files but apparently coming up empty. Exasperated, he looked up at Eve and said sheepishly "I had notes on everyone interviewing today, and I've just completely-" he looked around the room.

"That's no problem!" Eve interjected quickly "I can just talk you through my CV. Would you mind just telling me a bit more detail about the role first? So I can see where my relevant experience is."

"Problem solving and flexibility, I like it!" Mohan grinned wolfishly, extending his hands to rest behind his head. "Basically, Evelyn, I'm not a man of specifics. I just have a job that needs to be done. See out there?" he nodded in the direction of the desks outside of his meeting room. "Those guys are working non-stop to produce the highest quality video games in the world. I don't think some of them sleep. We're the best of the best," he leaned back further in his chair, "and I need the best for everything. That includes sound. You'd be working with the team out there to make sure everything's incorporated and tied together in the final version. You can sort the specifics out amongst yourselves." He paused. "What company are you working for at the moment?"

"I'm a freelancer." The lie came easily.

"I see." He paused thoughtfully. "You should know that we use our own software at Tuckersoft. I don't know what kind of stuff you use at your current workstation but I can't risk you corrupting any of the original files the guys are working on by using incompatible programs."

Eve supressed a smile. "That's not a problem. Although," faux concern crosses her face, "will I get training for the audio programs? I'm not sure how similar they'll be to ones I've used in the past."

"The programmers are playing with it themselves at the moment so I'm sure they'd be able to give you a hand. It's probably pretty similar to the standard stuff, though, I wouldn't worry too much. What are you using at the moment?"

 _Shit._ Before she could say anything, there was a gentle knock on the ajar door.

"Speaking of programmers," Mohan said, distracted, "This is Colin."

Midway through opening the door, a slim guy with bleached hair gave a mock salute in Eve's direction. "Pleasure." He said, his dark eyes locking onto hers. A silence settled in the room as she was struck by a feeling of faint familiarity. Perhaps she had read about him after all?

"Christ, not another one," Mohan groaned as if reading her mind. "Are you part of the Ritman super fan club too?"

Feeling vulnerable and recovering from her initial surprise, Eve regained her composure.

"I'm Evelyn.' She introduced herself, ignoring Mohan's comment. Colin nodded, holding back a smirk as he leaned against the doorframe "I'm still Colin." He replied.

"Actually, Col, it's probably best you sit in on this for the technical bits." Mohan said, ushering him into the room. "Evelyn was just talking about the equipment she uses."

Colin took a seat, adjusting his glasses to focus on the increasingly uneasy Eve. "Oh yeah?" he murmured, raising an eyebrow at her. "TASCAM?"

"Yes, mostly TASCAM. Although I've heard Tuckersoft has a different system?" She questioned, silently urging him to change the subject. He smiled gently at her response and fell silent, not taking the bait and keeping his eyes on her.

"Problem, Col?" Mohan cleared his throat, conscious of the quiet. Eve's heart skipped a beat as the seconds passed with no response.

"On the contrary, actually" Colin finally broke the silence, dragging his eyes away from Eve and onto his business partner, "TASCAM is very similar to what we've got set up." He ticked the points off on his fingers for effect. "Efficient. Advanced. Easily processed." He glanced back at Eve. "Professional." Eve smiled and nodded in what she hoped seemed like agreement. "It sounds like timing is definitely the focus here, Mohan" she added. "I like to run my projects as efficiently as possible. It's part of the reason I started freelance work, actually. Too much red tape." A small smile escaped from her lips at the last embellishment.

"That's what I like to hear! " He clapped his hands together, animated by the prospect of fast work. "And don't worry about corporate environment- or whatever it is you call it- we'll make sure you have free reign, creatively-speaking."

"That's good to hear." Eve replied, prompting a grin from Mohan.

"I have to say, Evelyn, this all sounds great. We have an influx of new games that we need ready by the Christmas period, so it's perfect. How soon can you start?" Before she could answer, he added "and will you be in the office or working from home? Some of our programmers prefer to keep away from the noise."

"She needs to be here." Colin interrupted. "To work one on one with us on the projects."

Mohan raised an eyebrow. "If she's one on one, she'll have to work flexibly anyway because I couldn't tempt Stefan back into the office if my life depended on it."

"Bandersnatch isn't even close to ready, it would be a waste of her time to design stuff for a half baked game." Colin countered, an edge to his voice. "She can help with Nohzdyve. I've got enough problems with that game already without worrying about the soundtrack and effects."

"Nohzdyve it is." Mohan held his hands up in mock surrender. "We can discuss Bandersnatch later." He stage whispered to Eve, prompting an exasperated sigh from Colin, who stood up to leave.

"Nice to meet you, Colin." Eve said.

"Start next week. I'll see you 9am Monday." he replied, not turning around to face her and heading out of the office without a further word. Mohan watched him leave, before offering Eve an apologetic shrug. "Sometimes I wonder who runs this company." He said. "Shall we discuss salary?"


	3. Chapter 3

Monday morning was spent in a blur of introductions and niceties. The company had a deceptively large number of employees considering its small size, and Eve was forced to give up attempting to remember names after meeting her third Christopher. She'd confessed this fact to Catherine, who was also experiencing her first day at Tuckersoft, and in response she'd slipped her a Rolodex card, smiling conspiratorially. It was a hand drawn seating plan, with names for everyone they'd met so far at the relevant work desk, written in neat cursive handwriting.

"Old receptionist trick." she whispered. "I'll make you a copy."

 _Perhaps I wouldn't have been such a great secretary after all._ Despite her initial bitterness, she'd found Catherine to be disarmingly likeable and had warmed to her almost immediately. Their shared nervousness had been a catalyst for their fast bonding, and they had spent their lunch together at the reception desk, chatting about their families and pausing occasionally whenever the phone rang so Catherine could perform her duties.

Eve nibbled quietly at her sandwich as Catherine dealt with a particularly persistent caller. She had spent her Saturday morning checking out every book she could find on programming at the library, narrowly talking her way out of paying an existing late fine. The remaining weekend had been spent reading as much as she could, with the admittedly naïve hope of mastering sound programming within 48 hours. The main takeaway had unfortunately been that experience was definitely compulsory, and her own software equipment was likely needed. Following this unhappy revelation, she had debated quitting before she even started, but a quick scan through the bills littering her bedroom floor banished the idea. Plus, Colin's verbal offer had put Mohan on the back foot for salary negotiations- learning that software engineers were paid handsomely was the only positive surprise she'd had in this whole experience.

"Evelyn." A sudden voice made her look up. Colin stood at the head of the desk, shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and cigarette in hand. "Now a good time?" he asked after she looked at him. She nodded hurriedly, dropping her sandwich and excusing herself with a polite smile to Catherine, who waved them off cheerfully.

In contrast to the rest of the office layout, Colin's desk sat away from everyone else, a sole island in a sea of productivity and noise. Conversations from across the room faded into gentle background noise, broken only by the occasional laugh or phone ringing from Catherine's desk. Colin pulled up a chair for Eve, before dropping heavily into his own seat, lighting his cigarette with a green lighter previously hidden in his shirt pocket. On the computer in front of him flashed the starting screen to Nohzdyve, brightly lit and inviting. Colin watched Eve looking at it for a few seconds, pensive, before clearing his throat and saying "Absolute pain in the arse, this one. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to get the frame rate smooth." He took a long drag of his cigarette. Eve held her breath as he exhaled. "Play it if you want." He offered. "I'm sick of running through it myself." Making the decision for her, he shifted his chair to make room at the desk. Eve leaned forward, tentatively placing her hand on the keyboard. Her brother played a lot of these kinds of games, so thankfully she had a vague idea of what to do. She pressed to start. Colin watched her play with interest, his eyes flicking between Eve's face and the screen. They were both silent for a few minutes as she focused intently on the game. Eve's competitive nature had taken effect almost immediately- she was already thinking ahead to what she could do next time to beat her rapidly climbing current score.

"You've played before?" Colin asked suddenly after a while, breaking the silence. Eve started, taking her eyes off the computer as her hand jumped off the keyboard. She looked back at the screen in time to see her character smash into the wall, disintegrating into dust. Colin winced. "Sorry."

"My brother has a lot of this kind of stuff."

"What games?"

"I don't know all of the names. I used to play White Bear with him."

Colin smiled. "White Bear is one of mine."

Eve felt her face flush almost immediately in response. "Really?"

He took a drag of his cigarette and turned back to the screen. "I see the 'Ritman super fan club' doesn't do much research, then" he said casually, holding his cigarette between his index and middle finger as he made air quotes in Eve's direction. Eve cringed.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I mentioned during the interview that I read something about you in the paper and I think Mr Thakur assumed-"

"What did you think?"

His interruption paused Eve mid sentence. "What did I think?" she repeated, questioning.

"White Bear." He turned to face her, his expression suddenly intensifying with interest. "What did you think of it?"

"Well… I remember it being quite addictive."

"All good things are." He retorted, inhaling from his cigarette as if to prove the point. "And what about the sound?" he prompted, inciting a rush of panic in Eve.

"I can't remember much about it, to be honest." She replied quickly. He nodded.

"I used TASCAM for it, actually. An older version though."

"You must have been quite young when you started programming, then." He couldn't have been more than a few years older than her.

"Are you asking me, or telling me?" He replied. Eve smiled. "The 'Ritman super fan club' doesn't cover that either, I'm afraid." Colin gave an appreciative snort.

"I'm beginning to think you're not a disciple of mine after all." He remarked sarcastically, holding her gaze for a few seconds, "Thank God for that."

"Colin!" A voice erupted from the sea of desks. Eve looked over to see one of the programmers gesturing emphatically towards them. "Can I get your input on these visuals please, mate?"

Colin sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose and stubbing out his cigarette on a well-used ashtray by the computer. "My disciples await." Eve stood up in response, preparing to make her way back to Catherine's desk, but instead caught the eye of Mohan, who had just emerged from his office.

"Eve- do you have a sec?" he asked uncertainly, eyeing both you and Colin with a raised eyebrow.

"Sure!" Eve replied, relieved of the distraction. Avoiding looking back in Colin's direction, she hurried across the room to greet him, smiling as he beckoned her into his office. He paused after closing the door, as though ensuring the outside noise was suitably muffled before turning to Eve.

"How's your first day going?" he asked, with his characteristic enthusiasm.

"Really well, thank you, it's all just a lot to take in." she tried to keep her answers as honest as possible. "Catherine's been a massive help, though. I feel like we've spent most of the day just trying to memorise everyone's names."

Mohan laughed, his eyes lighting up at the receptionist's name. "She's a great girl, isn't she? Can you believe I found her at a bar? Such a talent. And _speaking_ of talent," he smiled again, "Do you think you have room for one more name in your head? You might have heard me mention before, we have another programmer who works from home. Total genius, but a bit of a loner from what I can gather. I'd call him in to meet you in person, but he misses half of our appointments anyway so it might be best if you head straight into the lion's pit and catch him in his natural habitat. I wouldn't worry too much about the programming side of things," he added, observing and misunderstanding Eve's blank expression, "I doubt he'd let you help anyway. Just think of it more as a get-to-know you kind of situation. You'll probably be the first human he's seen in a while."

"Of course. Is tomorrow ok?"

"Ab-so-lutely. I'll have Catherine give you his address. Just check he's actually working on the game and not spending his salary in strip clubs or casinos for me, will you? I've got a lot riding on his little project. And-" his eyes flickered towards the door apprehensively, as though preparing for a sudden entry at any moment "-ignore whatever Colin's told you about Bandersnatch, if anything. I think the kid's paranoid, to tell you the truth. He's not been the same since Stefan came on board. These Wunderkinds tend to be pretty paranoid, not to mention competitive. I just don't want his opinions influencing you too much- professionally, of course." He coughed self-consciously, shifting in his seat. Eve smiled reassuringly, despite her own bemusement.

"No problem, Mohan. I'll let you know how it goes."

"Great!" enthusiasm recovering with a remarkable speed, he shot her wolfish grin. "I'll get a taxi sorted for tomorrow."


	4. Chapter 4

Eve wouldn't normally knock quite so intensely, but the sudden downpour of rain that started the second she had stepped out of the taxi combined with her lack of umbrella had increased the urgency somewhat. Much to her relief, the door opened almost immediately.

'Hello?' a middle-aged man in glasses answered the door, looking bemused. 'Can I help you, love?'

'Oh, I'm sorry, I think I might have the wrong house.' Eve scrambled for the scrawled address in her pocket, smiling apologetically. 'I'm looking for Stefan Butler?'

'Stefan?' the man looked visibly surprised, suddenly eyeing Eve with a keener focus. 'I didn't realise, sorry. This is the right address, then,' he smiled, opening the door wider. 'I'm Mark, his father,' he added as Eve made her way inside, shaking off as much of the rain as she could.

'You're a friend of Stefan's?' the animated quiver in his voice betrayed his transparent attempt at nonchalance. Eve suppressed a smile.

'A work colleague, actually.' Then, realising she had yet to formally introduce herself, she smiled and outstretched a hand. 'I'm Eve. I'm-' she paused briefly, 'the new sound engineer.' Mark took her hand, his initial reason for interest visibly dissipating, but a warm atmosphere remaining. 'It's nice to meet you, Eve. Stefan hardly ever talks about work so I'm in the dark about a lot of these new technological things, I'm afraid.'

Eve smiled brightly in response. 'That's no problem at all. Is he working right now?'

'Christ, he hardly ever stops! He's just upstairs- first door on the left. I'm afraid I can't be held responsible for the state of his room though- he's trying a new visual method for his game, and it's very…' Mark gesticulated emptily, struggling to find the word '… unusual.'

'I'll make sure to bear that in mind, Mr Butler.' Eve faltered before stepping further into the house, remembering her manners and slipping off her shoes, earning a subtle nod of approval from Mark.

'Right.' He paused for a second before turning and bellowing in the direction of the stairs 'STEFAN! VISITOR!'. Returning to face Eve, he smiled sheepishly. 'It might be better if you just go straight in, Eve- he's that absorbed in the damn game he probably won't have heard me.'

'Thanks!' easing past her host, she padded quickly up the stairs, pushing open the ajar door on the left to reveal her colleague's room. The first thing Eve noticed was the decorations- or, rather how muted they had become by the scrawlings on every inch of the wall. Stefan had tacked up pieces of paper all around the room, displaying what Eve assumed resembled some form of visual storyboard, although she herself had no idea how to interpret it. The space itself, lit only by the flickering light of the computer screen, was disorganised and messy- the unmistakeable signature of a creative at work.

'Hello?'

The artist in question had frozen as soon as Eve entered the room, midway through skim-reading a pile of notes balanced precariously on the desk. Stefan had the energy of an anxious teenage boy, although Eve was immediately struck by his tall frame and dark eyes. His unkempt hair suggested that he had woken up almost minutes before her intrusion- the dark circles under his eyes confirmed that this was almost definitely not the case. He straightened up as she smiled at him.

'I'm Eve. Mohan told me to drop by your house. Sorry about the surprise visit.'

'Oh. Hi.' He stammered, dropping his notes back onto the pile and stepping away from his desk.

'He said you were probably in the midst of something intense.' Eve continued, as Stefan followed her gaze around the room.

'Yeah.' He agreed awkwardly. 'Something like that. Are you here to check up on me?'

'No, not at all, I think it was just an initial meeting to say hi and all that. I'm new, so…'

Stefan visibly relaxed and exhaled quietly.

'Sorry for all for this,' he said after a second, gesturing around with a sheepish smile. 'If I'd have known, obviously I would have… cleaned up a bit.' Eve smiled in return, shaking her head in reassurance. 'If the same had been done for me, I'm not sure I would even be dressed, so you're fine. It's cool to be able to see a little bit of how your mind works. I have no idea what any of it means, but for what it's worth, I'm very impressed.'

Stefan's face flushed. 'Er… Right, yeah. I can show you the project if you want?' He turned away quickly and started fumbling with this keyboard, hitting a few incorrect keys in the process.

The opening screen lit up immediately, displaying the title 'Bandersnatch' under a pixelated monster face. Stefan nudged the keyboard towards Eve hesitantly, who sat down obligingly.

'You can have a go if you like. Are you working on your own project at the moment or something?'

'Nope.' Eve hit the start key. 'I'm a sound engineer.'

'Oh. Cool. I did all of the sound stuff for this myself, it's harder than it looks, isn't it?'

'Yeah.' Eve responded lamely, feigning focus on the text on screen to prevent further discussion.

'It's a choose-your-own adventure.' Stefan explained quickly, 'You move around the maze and each choice has different consequences. It's based on the book.'

'Jesus.' Eve turned to look at Stefan. 'That must be a lot of work.'

The flush that had gently faded from earlier threatened to make a reappearance on Stefan's face.

'Yeah,' he said hesitantly, 'it really is.' His eyes shifted towards the floor as he wrestled with a thought, but remained silent. Not wanting to make him self-conscious, Eve returned her focus to Bandersnatch. For the next half an hour, they chatted, with Stefan pointing out new ideas he had as she progressed through the game, occasionally referring to the notes he had scattered across the room. He seemed notably more at home when discussing the game, she noticed, catching him periodically trying to suppress a proud smile at story milestones.

'Great graphics, by the way,' she commented lightly, watching his face brighten.

'Thanks. Colin has been helping me with it. Have you met him yet? He's another one of the programmers.'

'Ritman? Yeah, he was in my interview actually- oh'

They both watched the screen as the pixels flickered on and off before an error messaged appeared.

'I don't think I've made that path yet.' Stefan glanced around his room at his illegible notes. 'Wasn't sure whether to make it a good or bad option. The book doesn't actually go into detail about it.'

'Couldn't you tie it into an existing path? So you don't have to write new ones for everything?'

A flicker of unexpected frustration crossed Stefan's face. 'No, that's not the point. They're all supposed to be completely organic.'

'Sure, but it would probably save a bit of time-' Eve didn't get the chance to finish her sentence as a sudden paranoid look crossed Stefan's face. 'Have you been talking to Mohan about this? Is that what this is all about? The deadline?'

'What? No-'

'Jesus Christ.' His voice rose, as he jumped to his feet, ignoring her response. 'I'm sick of him checking up on me- d-does he think I'm stupid?' The transition from frustration to anger was immediate and caught Eve off guard.

'Stefan, that's not what-'

'I'm not going to compromise the quality, no matter what he says, or his stupid fucking deadline. I've ran through this too many times, tell him that!' he was pacing the room now in agitation, eyes scanning the room wildly.

'Stefan!' Eve urged, rising from her chair also to meet this eyes. 'That's not what I'm here for, I promise.' He stopped moving.

'Right. So you're a _sound engineer_?' he asked slowly, scepticism appearing towards the end of the sentence as a new conspiracy developed in his head. A sinking feeling formed in the pit of Eve's stomach.

'Yes.' She swallowed, urging her main point, 'I'm not here spying on you, Stefan, seriously.'

'Right.' He sniffed, keeping his eyes locked on hers. 'What projects have you worked on before, then?'

* * *

Sorry for the delay in the newest chapter! To make it up to you, I thought I'd add a little Bandersnatch-themed fun and ask you to help choose what happens next. Please select an option via www. surveymonkey. co. uk/ r/XFZ65ZK (just delete the spaces in the link).

As always, any other feedback is greatly appreciated :)


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